


Our first family heirloom

by allthingspieandhockey (SunMonTue)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 18:56:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7544080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunMonTue/pseuds/allthingspieandhockey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bitty stumbles across something accidentally and sets about owning his first family heirloom... not that he knows it at the time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our first family heirloom

**Author's Note:**

> So FB does those “memories” thing, and 6 years ago today I posted this: “And you learn new things everyday… now I know that a “pie safe” exists, and also what one looks like.”   
> It made me think about Bitty at the Haus, the team, and Bitty and Jack and then I ficced. Oops.
> 
> Check Please and all characters belong to Ngozi.

He stumbles into the little thrift shop, not really looking for anything other than getting out of the cold, even if only for a temporary reprieve. He sees it in the corner, and it’s being used to display a whole range of other little items but he knows what it is. His Moomaw has one, mainly to keep the flies off and as handy storage for all the pies when they’re cooling but he’d never thought he’d get his own...

He runs a hand over the top, the paint is chipping off and where there should be mesh to allow airflow there’s pieces of chipboard nailed in place. It would have been a beautiful piece in its former glory. There is a little price tag dangling from the left door handle and he’s hesitant to turn it over, doesn’t want to be disappointed. 

**$50**

He can... totally afford that.  _Well_. His mom will understand if he dips into his emergency fund. It’s a  _pie safe_. And for it to be the first piece of furniture he will buy and own for himself is something he can’t help but be excited about. It’s just meant to be. He approaches the man behind the counter and asks about it, wants to know if it has a history, because that’s important to him now. And Jack will totally ask.

He’s thrilled when it  _does_  have a history. It belonged to the parents of the man, was a wedding gift from his mom’s parents because it had been  _their_  wedding gift from her parents, as the great grandfather of the man in front of him had  _made it_.

“Are you sure you want to  _sell_  a... piece of your family history?” Bitty asks, because he hates the idea of his Moomaw’s pie safe being anywhere but in her kitchen. And when the time comes, in his own Mom’s kitchen.

“Well, it got kinda beat-up after all the moves, and my parents are in a retirement community now and neither my sister or I like it.”

“I... I would be honored to buy it. And... do you think your parents would mind if I visited them?”

He gets a strange look for that, and an explanation that they’re located up in Providence, which Bitty says won’t be a problem. It turns out that they’re actually getting rid of all the stock and shutting the shop down. Bitty asks if he can come back and collect it later, which is fine. When he returns he has half the Haus with him, and Ransom and Holster easily pick the pie safe up and slide it into the back of the car, back seats folded down. Lardo is already talking about sanding it back and waxing it; Dex is talking about different types of mesh, would Bitty like a copper or chrome finish and Bitty grins at the bemused looking man he’s just bought from.

Bitty isn’t allowed to see it - the team are adamant that they fix it up for him and he’s a little sick with worry that they will ruin it. Jack reassures him, after he’s explained what a pie safe is and why he needs one. Whenever he walks into a room the conversation goes quiet, although he’s heard the word oak thrown around. The team are working on it down in the basement and have taken to padlocking the door so he can’t go down and sneak a peek.

They blindfold him for the reveal, and he’s not ashamed to admit later that he cries when he sees it. It’s beautiful. The wood is honey and amber colored (”Oak!” Nursey informs him) and smells of beeswax polish (“Easy to clean and maintain,” Lardo assures him). The mesh is black and honey-combed patterned (“Black powder coating perforated aluminum grill mesh sheet,” Dex says like that means something), new wrought iron handles (“I found them in that same little shop!” Chowder says) and Bitty knows whenever he looks at it in the future he’s going to think of Samwell and his team.

He takes so many pictures and sends them to his mom, Jack, posts them on his twitter and makes a dedicated blog post about it. Then he does something he hasn’t ever done. He goes and prints some of the photos off. He bakes a pie and makes plans for a weekend in Providence. He makes sure that Harold and Gloria Smithson will be available and arranges a time to meet them.

He’s unaccountably nervous when he knocks on the door, waiting to meet the people who will maybe care about the piece of furniture that was once theirs. Jack is with him, camera slung around his neck. He didn’t need to have worried, the older couple pour over the pictures and regale him with baking stories, including on about their daughter’s first attempt at blind baking - using rice, but no baking paper to line the pie crust. “It was a very crunchy lemon meringue pie!” Harold exclaims.

They have coffee and pie (”I’m so glad my pie safe is once again with someone who has the gift and time for baking!” Gloria says, grasping Bitty’s hand, eye filled with happy tears). Jack asks if he can write all the dates down, so he can write a full history of the piece of furniture. Later, when Bitty asks him why he’d want to do that, Jack explains he wants their family heirlooms to have a well-documented history. Gloria brings out photos, showing the pie safe in its original condition. Jack takes notes, and photos of the photos.

Several years later, at Jack and Bitty’s wedding Harold and Gloria sit with Bitty and Jack’s grandparents. 


End file.
